Will we ever get a new Deus Ex? Could Ascend be the mechanical centerpiece of the next Zelda? And can speedrunning wash away all the bad sulfates still swimming around in our systems from 2025? It’s the latest edition of Morning Checkpoint, brought to you from my in-laws’ basement in western PA where the wind chill has temps near zero. I’m currently blogging with an original Xbox to my right and the Sega Genesis version of Shaq Fu to my left. I am trying to put the finishing touches on my January backlog plans. They include getting at least one of the Celestial weapons in Final Fantasy X.
The most obnoxious way to beat an ultra-hard Clair Obscur boss
It took Reddit user Recordbreaks 10,545 successful parries to beat the RPG’s new Duolistest boss from the recent free update, IGN reports. The whole thing took over eight hours to complete, including one short break.
“Only reason it took me this long is because I haven’t properly built Verso for damage in the millions yet,” Recordbreaks wrote. “He was doing maybe 200,000 damage per hit and that’s if Roulette was working in my favor which it wasn’t most of the time.”
Don’t expect a new Deus Ex in 2026
….no Deus Ex because the people in charge are psychopaths.
— Elias Toufexis (@EliasToufexis) January 1, 2026
The voice of Adam Jensen, Elias Toufexis, recently previewed his upcoming projects for 2026, including three mystery games. “No Deus Ex because the people in charge are psychopaths,” he added to cut off fan speculation. A new game in the sci-fi franchise was reportedly cancelled back in 2024 amid a wave of layoffs at Eidos Montreal.
A neat idea for the next Zelda game
Xboxera cofounder Nick ‘Shpeshal Nick’ Baker shared an alleged rumor about the next mainline Zelda game for Switch 2 on a recent crossover podcast with Giant Bomb‘s Jeff Grubb. Whether it’s accurate or not (I’m prone to disbelieve any Nintendo-related rumor unless it’s a multi-sourced report or comes from a supply chain warehouse), it still makes for a neat concept.
Baker suggests the next Zelda will revolve around dimensional shifting using tears to transport between worlds. The mechanic would impact puzzle solving and other parts of the game, which would carry over a lot of the open-world concepts from BotW and TotK. It might be fan fiction, but it would also make for a neat-sounding game.
I can totally imagine Nintendo taking the Ascend ability from the last game, which began life essentially as a development cheat code, and creating a whole game around it. Whatever the next Zelda ends up being, it’s probably still years away.
Awesome Games Done Quick 2026 is right around the corner
New year, new Shout 😎
See you soon, #AGDQ2026 pic.twitter.com/eJ0gqClcWr
— Games Done Quick (@GamesDoneQuick) January 2, 2026
The annual winter speedrunning marathon kicks-off on January 4 at 12:00 p.m. ET with Super Mario Sunshine. The week-long event will feature first-time appearances by new games like Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, Split Fiction, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. You can find the full schedule for AGDQ 2026 here, with VOD uploads on YouTube and livestreams on Twitch.
The big-budget John Wick video game adaptation is still on track
Lionsgate chairman Adam Fogelson recently hinted at an AAA John Wick game coming “soon,” but the company apparently has other licensed spin-offs in the works as well. Those include a Saw game and “some others that we’ll be announcing soon.” Maybe we’ll see them in an upcoming PlayStation showcase or at Summer Game Fest 2026.
ICYMI:
Watch this:
